App Reviews

The Story

CNN might be one of America's finest news sources, but it also does a neat line in world news as well. Naturally it invites comparison with the BBC News app that we rate very highly. So does CNN's app deliver anything we haven't seen before or can't get elsewhere?

The Experience

We've seen numerous news apps using the now traditional horizontal scrolling rows of icons but CNN breaks the mould here, employing more of a blog-like approach with one main story given the majority of screen real estate and several lesser/older stories available to scroll vertically down to. Scroll across the page and you can access US-only news, news from Africa and Asia, European stories and also drill down to individual categories - technology and entertainment for example.
The default setting for the app fetches pure text and image stories, but tap the menu tab in the top left of the screen and you get access to the video and radio reports on offer and get involved yourself thanks to CNN's iReport option that allows you to become a citizen journalist and submit video, images and words to the app for those moments when you're making the news rather than reading all about it.
If there's one criticism we could level at CNN's app, it's that Piers Morgan's stupid head makes rather too frequent appearances in between stories, in video pre-roll, etc, etc... It happens so often we genuinely thought we might be hallucinating, but a quick consultation with a number of trusted colleagues reassured us that Piers really is overexposed in the US.
The quality of reporting - and perhaps this is because of its US bent - isn't quite in the same league as BBC News but if anything we prefer CNN's approach to navigation.

8.8

The Bottom Line

Naturally less UK-specific than BBC News and the quality of reporting isn't quite comparable, but the app is easier to navigate and is certainly worth a download alongside the BBC's app